{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,2]],"date-time":"2026-09-02T11:19:40Z","timestamp":1788347980727,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,9]],"date-time":"2022-06-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1654732800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2021YFF0703100"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021YFF0703100"]}]},{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2018ZX09101001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018ZX09101001"]}]},{"name":"Technology Major Projects of Drug Discovery","award":["2021YFF0703100"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021YFF0703100"]}]},{"name":"Technology Major Projects of Drug Discovery","award":["2018ZX09101001"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018ZX09101001"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Chronic hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection is frequently reported in immunocompromised patients, but has also been increasingly reported in non-immunocompromised individuals. We characterized the course of chronic HEV infection in immunocompetent rabbits. In two independent experiments, 40 specific-pathogen-free rabbits were infected with a rabbit HEV genotype 3 strain in serial diluted titers (108 to 104 copies\/mL). Serum and fecal samples were collected weekly and were tested for HEV RNA, antigen, anti-HEV and liver enzymes. Rabbits that spontaneously cleared the infection before 10 weeks post-inoculation (wpi) were kept to the end of the study as recovery control. Liver tissues were collected from HEV-infected rabbits at 5, 10 and 26 wpi for histopathological analysis. Nineteen rabbits (47.5%) developed chronic HEV infection with persistent viraemia and fecal HEV shedding for &gt;6 months. Seroconversion to anti-HEV was observed in 84.2% (16\/19) of the chronically infected rabbits. Serum levels of aminotransferase were persistently elevated in most of the rabbits. Characterizations of chronic HEV infection in immunocompetent settings could be recapitulated in rabbits, which can serve as a valuable tool for future studies on pathogenesis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v14061252","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,13]],"date-time":"2022-06-13T06:31:59Z","timestamp":1655101919000},"page":"1252","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Characterization of Chronic Hepatitis E Virus Infection in Immunocompetent Rabbits"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6850-1950","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chunnan","family":"Liang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"National Rodent Laboratory Animal Resources Center, Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chenyan","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of HIV\/AIDS and Sex-Transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tianlong","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Animal Pathology and Public Health, Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Bo","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Animal Pathology and Public Health, Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhiguo","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Rodent Laboratory Animal Resources Center, Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huili","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Rodent Laboratory Animal Resources Center, Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wei","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Rodent Laboratory Animal Resources Center, Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Minghai","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Rodent Laboratory Animal Resources Center, Institute for Laboratory Animal Resources, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nan","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of HIV\/AIDS and Sex-Transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiong","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of HIV\/AIDS and Sex-Transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1474-0427","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jianhui","family":"Nie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of HIV\/AIDS and Sex-Transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Li","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of HIV\/AIDS and Sex-Transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4246-8889","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Weijin","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of HIV\/AIDS and Sex-Transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruiping","family":"She","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Animal Pathology and Public Health, Key Laboratory of Zoonosis of Ministry of Agriculture, College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9769-5141","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Youchun","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of HIV\/AIDS and Sex-Transmitted Virus Vaccines, Institute for Biological Product Control, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC), Beijing 102629, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,6,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17086","DOI":"10.1038\/nrdp.2017.86","article-title":"Hepatitis E virus infection","volume":"3","author":"Kamar","year":"2017","journal-title":"Nat. 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